zoological files
by wild wolf free17
Summary: Rachel and Tobias drabbles
1. sing in the glories of the sky

**Title**: sing in the glories of the sky

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: takes place mid-series

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 95

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: author's choice, moments like this are what we're fighting for

* * *

Tobias is coasting on a current high above them, Jake and Cassie are curled up together almost asleep, Marco is explaining a joke to Ax while Ax hurries his way through a bag of popcorn, and Rachel is watching Tobias.

She quickly glances over at her friends, then around at the field, part of Cassie's family's property. They're safe here, as safe as they are anywhere. Safer than a lot of places.

Tobias lets out a screech; it's echoed in her head as he calls, _C'mon!_

She morphs and takes to the sky.


	2. to taste the sky

**Title**: to taste the sky

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: AU

**Pairings**: Rachel/Tobias

**Rating**: PG  
**Wordcount**: 230

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Animorphs, Rachel/Tobias, because the warrior she's become isn't exactly the kind of girl who wants flowers

* * *

The others don't understand, Tobias knows. The others are seasoned veterans who won a great victory, and then they went home. Back to school, back to their families, back to life before the war.

Tobias can't do that. Neither can Rachel. She wants to, sometimes; he can tell by the way she watches the horizon, stares into the sky.

Cassie stops by every few months. Yells his name, _Tobias, please! Don't do this. Come back._

Wild birds stay away from humans. Especially raptors. He hasn't responded to her, and she isn't sure which territory is his. He moved after the war.

Tobias knows they think Rachel died. Knows it's cruel to let them keep believing that, but she isn't the girl they knew. Rachel died a hero in a war for the entire human race. What she is now... they wouldn't accept her. Wouldn't know what to do with her, a Rachel that is far more hawk than beauty queen with a taste for fighting.

If he was still human, if Rachel was still a teenage girl, today would be Valentine's. A day of chocolate and roses and hand-holding.

But he's not a human, and she's not a girl, and she's watching the sky, wings itching to fly.

*Rachel?* he says. *Bet I can catch dinner before you.*

*You're on,* she shoots back and arrows for the horizon.


	3. touch the ground and climb to the sky

**Title**: touch the ground and climb to the sky

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: future!fic

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG  
**Wordcount**: 165

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Animorphs, Rachel, the well intentioned, lost girl behind the tragic heroine no one _really_ remembers any more (post series)

* * *

Of them all, Rachel has the most legends. She's remembered as bloodthirsty, as dangerous, as beautiful, as the sacrifice who won the war, as a hero who never thought twice about doing her duty and doing it with style.

Of course, what very few people remember is that all the legends are true.

And what even fewer people remember, because so very few ever knew, is that Rachel was once a little blonde girl who dragged her mother from one store to another, who tumbled and cartwheeled, who taught her baby sisters to dance.

She's known the world over as a warrior. People on other planets know her name, know how her story ended. Barely anyone remembers that she was just a little girl, once.

Cassie almost names her first daughter _Rachel_. She closes her eyes, gently holds her baby to her breast, and remembers that golden-haired, bright-eyed girl who promised that, together, they'd change the world.

She names her daughter Hope instead.


	4. Remember us at our peak, in our prime

**Title**: Remember us at our peak, in our prime

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Carol Ann Duffy

**Warnings**: takes place towards the end of the series

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG  
**Wordcount**: 195

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: sunrise

* * *

Mom freaked about Rachel's grades again. And attendance. And attitude. So Rachel stormed out, found a good place to morph, and flew away.

She's so tired of being scared, of being exhausted, of being _angry_. She's furious all the time—at the Yeerks, and the Andalites, and the Controllers and the Sharing and _Jake_. He's doing his best; they are all. But it's not enough. Maybe nothing will be enough until all the Yeerks are dead, but Cassie freaked the last time Rachel suggested that. (Marco agreed, and Tobias. Ax said nothing. Jake looked sad. He always looks sad anymore.)

*_Rachel?*_ Tobias calls. *_That you?*_

She ignores him and keeps flying. She'll visit later, when she's not such a mess. She'll hurt anyone she sees in this mood.

She flies and flies, morphs back to human, then eagle again, and flies some more. She's miles from home and it's dark out, and she can't sleep or she'll be stuck.

She doesn't want to be human right now. Doesn't want to be a girl caught up in someone else's war.

She morphs throughout the night, and then watches the dawn in her own body.

She doesn't feel better.


	5. Pegasus goes free, unmounted yet

**Title**: Pegasus goes free, unmounted yet

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from C. Day-Lewis

**Warnings**: spoilers for everything

**Pairings**: gennish

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 190

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Animorphs, Rachel, wild at heart

* * *

Rachel's favorite daydream, one she runs out of time to tell Tobias, and knows Cassie and Jake would never understand (Marco might've) and Ax just wouldn't have the personal knowledge for comprehension, is that she's in bird morph and riding a storm.

She knows it's crazy. Knows it probably couldn't actually happen, that she'd be buffeted around and probably break a wing and fall and fall-

That's why it's a dream. That's why she pulls insane stunts and barrels her way through and laughs in the middle of battle, roaring as a bear or shrieking as a bird, giving herself fully to the bloodlust of a warrior who knows _victory at any price_.

She's not fighting for morals or honor, or in anger and hatred. She's not Cassie's reluctant soldier or Jake's weary general. She's a warrior finally given focus, given a war.

Rachel's fighting for her planet's freedom, and it's a storm inside her, wind and water lashing together into something beyond anyone's understanding, and she can only unleash it when she's out of her weak girl-shape, and she's an eagle, high in the sky, dreaming about a hurricane to ride.


	6. I have lived so little

**Title**: forgive me lord for I have lived so little

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton

**Warnings**: post-54

**Pairings**: Rachel/Tobias

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 115

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Animorphs, any main, cry yourself to sleep

* * *

Birds can't cry.

0o0

Tobias spends most of his time perched in his tree. He hunts when he thinks about it, sleeps when he's too tired to do anything else, ignores everything.

Sometimes, he can almost forget.

Almost.

0o0

Nothing has changed in his territory. Entire worlds have opened up to Earth, but Tobias still has a tree and a territory, and he's just a bird there.

He's just a red-tailed hawk. He's not a hero, or the near-lover who never had a chance, or Elfangor's son.

He hasn't mourned yet. He'll never mourn, because birds can't cry.

0o0

Tobias hasn't morphed human since Rachel died because if he started crying he'd never stop.


	7. I see your loving look wherever I go

**Title**: I see your loving look wherever I go

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Mona Van Duyn

**Warnings**: post-war

**Pairings**: unrequited Marco/Rachel; Rachel/Tobias

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 210

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Animorphs, one-sided Marco/Rachel, once upon a time she crossed the lunchroom and wordlessly handed him her packet of gummy bears the first day he returned to school after his mom's boating accident- the first time he sees them in the candy aisle after their Warrior Princess dies, he almost breaks down in the store

* * *

Seven months and he still turns at every flash of blonde from the corner of his eye. Seven months and he changes the channel whenever gymnastics comes on. Seven months and he can't even set foot in the mall.

Tobias is out in the wild, Cassie's buried herself in her animals, Ax is back among his own kind, and Jake... Jake had a mini-breakdown and hasn't spoken to any of them since.

And Marco had a sugar craving, so he disguised himself with shades and ballcap, sauntered into Wal-Mart like he owned the place, and looked for the Reese's.

It was a punch to the gut when he saw them, those goddamned rainbow-colored bears. The same bears his gorgeous Warrior Princess gave him that first day back at school when he thought his mom had died in the water. He stared at the bags and bags, all those colors and little bears, and he couldn't breathe.

He bought a single bag and caught a plane. He saw a hawk flying away as he approached the memorial, and all he said as he set the bag down is, "I hope you're kickin' ass up there, Rachel." He looked at the sky, at the bird circling, and then he went back home.


	8. the prize we sought is won

**Title**: the prize we sought is won

**Fandom**: _Animorphs_/"Supernatural" crossover

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun. Title from Whitman.

**Warnings**: AU for _Animorphs_—the final battle happened and Rachel died, but all the aliens remained hidden.

**Pairings**: Rachel/Tobias

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 985

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Notes**: -Dean Winchester- is morphspeak.

**Dedication**: claraine, who requested this crossover.

* * *

It was six years after Rachel's death when Tobias had the first dream. He was in a cave, half-human and half-hawk, and a shadow-man with yellow eyes manifested before him.

"Welcome," the shadow said. "I've been waiting for you." It circled him; Tobias spun to keep it in sight. "You are my special one," it purred. "My favorite."

"Who are you?" Tobias demanded. "What do you want?"

It laughed. "Call me _Father_."

Tobias reared back and glared. "I have a father."

"No," it corrected. "You _had_ a father. He died, didn't he? Before you ever knew him."

"I knew him," Tobias insisted, forcibly lowering his wing-arms. "He was good."

"Yes," the shadow mused. "A warrior. The best his people have ever borne. But he still died, m'boy. He still left. You must be so angry at him for that."

Tobias threw himself back, away from those glowing yellow eyes and the understanding voice, and nearly fell out of his tree. He flared his wings, catching himself, and hurried toward dawn.

.

Three nights later, the shadow-man returned. It stood in the corner as Tobias watched Rachel fight again.

"Oh, poor boy," it said sadly. "Everyone always leaving. If only you knew your power, you could make them stay."

Rachel fell to the floor, bleeding and broken. Tears poured from Tobias' human eyes and Rachel died.

He woke leaping from his tree, morphing human. But even as he cried, huddled close to the dirt, he wanted to run, for the earth to pound beneath his hooves.

Tobias went from human to horse in less than a heartbeat and didn't stop to think about the ease or speed or impossibility of the change until dawn broke and he'd been a horse for half the night.

_No_, he moaned. _I'm **nothlit** again_.

He already mourned his wings, and as he thought of them he felt them sprouting to the sky and wondered, _What the fuck is going on?_

.

That night, it was the Ellimist in his old man guise that crashed Tobias' dream of hunting a polar bear.

"Hello, Tobias," he said. "The years have been kind to you."

-Why are you here?- Tobias demanded, dropping to the ground and morphing human. "What do you want?"

"Surely you've noticed some changes, Tobias. You no longer need to be in hawk form to morph; you can go from animal to animal with speed and beauty. You, dear boy, are something entirely new."

Tobias snorted. "Well, bully for me." He turned, leaping up and becoming a hawk, swiftly flying away.

The Ellimist kept pace with him. "You can become anything you want, Tobias. You can mix and match; if you but imagine it, it is yours."

Tobias flew faster and his eyes opened.

He swiftly morphed human and yelled into the night, "Just leave me the fuck alone!"

.

For almost a month he got his wish. But then he dreamed of the Ellimist fighting a yellow-eyed shadow, both screaming for his soul. Tobias watched, at a loss. He didn't know what to do or how to wake.

"He has been mine from the moment of his mother's birth!" the shadow howled.

"But his father wasn't one of yours," the Ellimist countered calmly. "The father was mine. I chose the boy first, demon. I have prior claim."

The shadow-man(demon?) jeered. "You think that matters to me? You are not of this world or this time."

"Tobias," the Ellimist pronounced, wings hovering at his back, "son of Loren and Elfangor is _mine_."

The shadow peered long at Tobias; it took great restraint to keep from shrinking back.

"For now, Elder," the shadow said softly. "But mine always prove themselves in the end." It chuckled. "Killers, all. Remorseless. You'll see."

Tobias woke, dread in his throat.

.

After that, he began practicing. The Ellimist was right: he envisioned the shape in his mind and he became it. Any shape, from any age—except alien, he found. He couldn't morph Andalite or Taxxon or Hork-Bajir. But he could become dinosaurs and saber-toothed cats and mammoths. He could even create mythological beasts, like sirens and centaurs. His morphs were always male, though.

The war was over, had been ended quietly with the Yeerks retreating. And now, when it was no use, he had such ability—Tobias cursed the shadow and Ellimist both.

.

A year to the night of his first dream, on the eve of his twenty-third birthday, the shadow came back. Tobias was awake this time.

It spoke to him through a young woman with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Tobias knew she wasn't Rachel, but the superficial similarities hurt him anyway.

"I can return her to you, m'boy," it said with the woman's stolen mouth. "The meddler is constrained by his rules, but my hands are unfettered."

Tobias morphed a viper of monstrous size and gave himself large bat wings. -And what would I have to do for you?- he asked.

"There is a war, Tobias, far greater than the alien war you've already fought. It's not about lives—it's about souls. I want you for my side."

Tobias took to the air. -You'll give me back Rachel? Like she was?-

It nodded the bright blonde head.

-Alright,- Tobias answered. -You keep up your end and I'm your soldier.-

.

Two years passed before anything happened. Rachel didn't magically appear anywhere and Tobias kept living like he always had. He kept his new abilities from the surviving Animorphs with ease—he hadn't spoken to any of them, even Ax, since Rachel died.

And then, the day after Tobias turned twenty-five, he woke up to a young blonde woman lying in his meadow, and he knew before he saw her face that she was his Rachel.

As he helped her up and explained what all had happened in the near-ten years since she died, Tobias thought to the yellow-eyed shadow, _Whatever you want, I'm yours. _


	9. in the after

Title: in the after

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: character death

Pairings: none

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 100

Point of view: third

Prompt: Animorphs, Rachel, darkness

* * *

It's quiet, in the after. She sleeps for… a long time. How long? Worlds are born and fade away into the nothingness. It's quiet and she stays still, wrapped in a blanket of sky, of cloud and star. She rests. It's been so long since she could rest, since there was nothing to do, nothing to worry about.

When she wakes, she rolls to her feet and assesses herself: nothing hurts, or aches, or throbs. She's in a pleasant place – trees and grass and flowers and birdsong. And a path, leading… somewhere. She glances at the sky and steps forward.


	10. tell me I was dreaming

Title: tell me I was dreaming

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: mentions of character death; grief

Pairings: Rachel/Tobias

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 100

Point of view: third

Prompt: Animorphs, Rachel, dust in the wind

* * *

In his dreams, she flies on wings of her own, golden hair streaming behind her, laughing so loud it fills the sky.

In his nightmares, he never walked home with that group of friendly kids.

In his daydreams, she dances to music he can barely hear, gesturing for him to join her, smiling.

In his daymares, she's screaming for help because _there're too many, just too many_ for her to win by herself, and he tries, he tries so hard to get there – but he never makes it.

But he always wakes up, alone, away from everything.

He wakes up.


	11. Rachel

Title: Rachel

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: spoilers for the books; character death

Pairings: Cassie/OMC

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 185

Point of view: third

Prompt: any, any(/any),

time cannot contain You  
You fill eternity  
Sin can never stain You  
And death has lost its sting

* * *

In a hundred years, _Rachel_ is still one of the most popular names across the Earth. Marco, Jacob, Cassie – all popular, but not as much. And Tobias… he's mentioned in the books, the TV series, the movies, but usually only as the tragedy. Ax is a legend, the alien that fought for humanity.

But Rachel… there's a Rachel Day to honor her, celebrated by every nation. There are official biographies, fictional adventure series, children who dress like her on Halloween. Captain America and Rachel Berenson are the American heroes, but everyone knows that Rachel Berenson was _real_.

Cassie's daughter Hope has a daughter named Yvonne, who has a daughter named Annalyn, who has a daughter named Rachel. All of them are gifted at morphing, and all of them dream of the stars.

Cassie dies after a long life, the only one who does. She dies in her sleep, dreaming of being young again, of laughing with Rachel, of holding Jake's hand, of running through a field on four powerful legs. She dies with Rachel's voice in her ears - _I've been waiting for you_.


End file.
